War Office is to some extent an artificial group of records. Many of the documents in the group were indeed generated by a department called the War Office. However, the papers record the activities of several military departments and offices. Apparently for convenience and ease of research and because all the various functions ultimately became part of the War Office's responsibilities, the Public Record Office has placed all of these records together in one group., The War Office records are organized into numbered classes. There are numbered classes for each of the major military offices, generally under the headings In-Letters, Out-Letters, Minutes, Accounts, Registers, and Miscellanea (e.g. WO 4, Secretary at War Out-Letters); a number of classes of rolls and returns (e.g. WO 10, Muster Books and Pay Lists, Artillery); various collections of private papers which were presented to the War Office (e.g. WO 34, Amherst Papers); and a large number of classes of miscellaneous records (e.g. WO 40, Selected Unnumbered Papers). Within classes or within individual volumes there are few common principles of arrangement. The most usual order, however, is chronological, by regiment, or some combination of the two.
The following publication provides detailed information on classes of the War Office: C.M. Andrews, Guide to the Materials for American History, to 1783, in the Public Record Office of Great Britain, II, Departmental and Miscellaneous Papers (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1914). Also, Charles O. Paullin and Frederick L. Paxson, Guide to the Materials in London Archives for the History of the United States since 1783 (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1914). While concentrating on American history and despite the mass of records which has been transferred to the Public Record Office since their publication, these volumes can be very helpful to researchers studying Canadian history., There is also: Guide to the Contents of the Public Record Office, II, State Papers and Departmental Records, and III, Documents Transferred 1960-1966 (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1963 and 1968., In addition, there is: List of War Office Records, Preserved in the Public Record Office, (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1908). Republished in 1963 by the Kraus Reprint Corporation of New York, it lists individual volumes within each class covered. Omitted were muster books and pay lists, most returns, private collections, the records of the Judge Advocate General's Office, and many of the classes of miscellaneous papers., There is also: An Alphabetical Guide to Certain War Office and Other Military Records Preserved in the Public Record Office (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1931). This is an index divided into two parts, General and Regimental, to thirty-one War Office classes as well as a small number of classes from the State Paper Office, Colonial Office, and Home Office.
Related material may be found in other Public Record Office groups such as those described in Manuscript Groups 11 to 16 and MG 40, at the National Archives of Canada. This includes notes and memoranda sent to or from the War Office and other departments concerned with military matters. Special mention should be made of MG 11, Colonial Office, because of the particularly close relationship between colonial and military officials., Similarly, RG 7, Governor General's Office; RG 8, British Military and Naval Records; and RG 9, Department of Militia and Defence, all contain important documents relating to military questions in British North America., In addition, the private papers of politicians, civil servants, and military personnel frequently include letters to and from military departments in Britain. Of note are fonds or collections in MG 21, British Museum; MG 18, Pre-Conquest Papers; MG 23, Late Eighteenth Century papers; MG 24, Nineteenth Century Pre-Confederation Papers; MG 26, Prime Ministers' Papers; MG 27, Political Figures, 1867-1950; MG 29, Nineteenth Century Post-Confederation Manuscripts; and MG 30, Manuscripts of the First Half of the Twentieth Century.
